Silviculture

Silviculture is the practice of work and experimentation, as well as a potential market, where
bengolako has also commenced to develop its R+D+i activities, a preliminary step to that of the design
of new industrial applications and the start up of new corporate projects.

To that effect, bengolako has collaborated with the Neiker Technological Centre in the
validation of a procedure for disinfecting seedlings and trunks of the Pinus Radiata (Monterey Pine),
infected by the Fusarium Circinatum fungus, through the application of its impregnation by vacuum immersion
procedure, as well as a subsequent drying of the seedlings once treated, also through the application of a
vacuum based process.

The project had the advantage of obtaining the results of this innovative disinfection system with
respect to those systems that are currently being used. A system that would ensure the maintenance of healthy
wood after processing, as well as the curing of the infected seedlings, as a means of preventing the onset
of such diseases in the new plantations.

On a European level, the current situation regarding the Fusarium Circinatum disease is one of alarm,
quarantine, surveillance and prevention of the spreading of the disease, which has been officially recognised
in Spain, France and Italy and is widely dispersed in the United States, Chile, Japan and South Africa.

In summary, the application of this treatment procedure has proven to be very effective for disinfection
of both the treated wood as well as the infected seedlings. This procedure has unveiled also an important
potential as an application system for substances and preventive treatments and other seedling types from
the various species studied.

As an added, it should be stressed that the immediacy between the impregnation and drying processes has
shown that it does not limit the viability of the seedlings. Without the drying process the viability
is accelerated, which in turn, begins the germination process and a high impregnation is achieved
in record time, as compared with the traditional film and forage seed coating treatments.

In this fashion, the results of this experience for the treatment of various forest infestations have
opened in turn a very important field to implement some strategies to control infestations which affect several
tree species and for the impregnation of seedlings with substances and organisms that may contribute to its
optimal development, and with a spatial impact in the field of nutrition.